Vault-Tec meets BattleTech
by Barnstormer37
Summary: When a Battle Armor trooper of the Allied Mercenary Command appears in the Capitol Wasteland after the Word of Blake nuclear strikes on Outreach, how will he change the lives of the Lone Wanderer and all those who call the Wasteland home. FLW/OMC
1. Chapter 1

**Vault-Tec Meets BattleTech**

_War. War never changes._

_Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage._

_In the year 2766, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. Stefan Amaris led a coup to take control of the _STAR LEAGUE_ plunging the _INNER SPHERE _into chaos._

_But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the civil war was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. Five _SUCCESSOR STATES_ fought for dominance and control of the remains of the _LEAGUE.

_Now, in the year 3067, a new player enters the war. The _WORD OF BLAKE _is starting its holy war for control of known space. The _ALLIED MERCENARY COMMAND_ on Outreach is the first line of defense against _WOB_ aggression. That line is about to fall; because war, war never changes._

Sam Roberts made one last check of his equipment. Gray Death Scout Armor, repaired and recharged; CHECK. Intek laser rifle; CHECK. Reserve power packs; CHECK. Sternsnacht Python sidearm; CHECK. 4 magazines; CHECK. Survival kit; CHECK. Solar Recharger; CHECK. Medical Kit; CHECK. Everything was ready to go for his long range patrol and headhunting mission. He would be taking the fight to the Wobbies now. He had lost friends in the first battle of Outreach and Task Force Vengeance, and he was looking forward to the opportunity to get some payback.

Since the initial landings, the AMC had been able to hold the Blakists back, and it looked like a victory might be possible; but the Wobbies still held positions in orbit, so resupply was impossible without breaking the blockade. After Mars, there was a reluctance to commit WarShips to fight against WOB ships, so that was unlikely to happen any time soon. The AMC would have to make do with what they had, as mercenaries had done for the centuries since the fall of the Star League.

Sam was about to link up with the rest of the battle armor troopers who had been scraped together from remnants of destroyed units or independents to form their patrol when a siren screamed through the air. It was a siren that every warfighter hoped never to hear. The Wobbies had decided that defeat was not an option and were launching nuclear weapons to destroy the defenders. There were no defenses constructed to survive nuclear attack in the camp, the very idea that nuclear weapons would be used was almost unthinkable, it was simply not done in this day and age. Too much risk of collateral damage to important infrastructure. But the Wobbies weren't here to capture technology or factories, they were here to destroy those on Outreach who would resist them.

There was no hope of survival for those in ground zero, all that could be done was to set their affairs in order with whatever higher being they believed in. Samuel's last thought was a regret that he wouldn't live to take the fight to Terra. There was a flash of brilliant light and Samuel B. Roberts and thousands of other soldiers vanished from the face of the universe in nuclear fire.

Sam slowly regained consciousness. He was surprised at that turn of events, expecting to have been vaporized by the nuclear detonation. He wondered if he was in the afterlife, but when he felt the soreness in his muscles he decided if he were in Heaven he would feel much better and in hell he would feel much worse. Now convinced that he was among the living, he realized that he was being dragged.

"We going to eat good tonight. Big man have lots of meat!" Growled a low voice.

"Big man big because of suit. Inside suit not big man. Not lots of meat."

Sam opened his eyes. There were two, big, green, talking, _Gorillas_ dragging him away; apparently to be dinner. Sam decided he'd be damned if he survived a nuke just to be grilled for dinner. He looked around at his surroundings trying not to alert his captors that he was conscious. The ground had an unhealthy yellow and gray color. There were ruins all around him that appeared to have been abandoned for decades. The gorillas were dragging him toward a semi-intact building with tents setup in front of it. He took stock of his equipment. It seemed that the green giants had yet to strip him down. All of his weapons and equipment seemed to still be attached to him. Sam came to the conclusion that wherever these monsters wanted to take him was a place he didn't want to go.

Sam slid his sidearm out of its holster and aimed at the back of the gorilla on the right, where he thought its heart should be if it were anything like a human. He fired two shots there and one more at the back of the monster's head all in a span of less than a second. All of his shots hit their mark and the gorilla fell over dead. The other one turned towards him and roared before pulling a large piece of wood with nails hammered through as spikes and wielding it as a weapon. Sam was about to fire on the second monster when a shot rang out from behind him and a bullet struck the gorilla in the hand causing it to drop its weapon, then a second shot hit it in the chest causing it to stagger back, and a third hit it in the head finally putting the abomination down for good.

Sam turned around to see a woman in a blue jumpsuit with 101 printed in bold yellow characters on the front and leather reinforcements on the joints and right shoulder, holding a bolt action rifle at the ready.

"I'm not going to have to shoot you too am I?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so. Say, can you tell me where I am?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Vault-Tec Meets BattleTech**

Catherine Miller was having a bad day. Two weeks ago, her father had left the vault that she had grown up in, without so much as a goodbye. In the resulting chaos, Jonas; her Dad's assistant and friend; was killed by vault security and radroaches swarmed the lower levels of the vault. The Overseer wanted her dead because she upset the _order _of his vault by her association with James Miller. She had been forced to leave the only home she had known for the harsh unknown wasteland.

Since leaving she had learned many things. One of which was that her Father wasn't from the vault, and she wasn't born there either. She also learned that apparently her vault upbringing made her the only one capable of solving problems that had existed for decades, at least, before she arrived on scene, most notably the bomb in the center of Megaton. All that needed to be done was for someone to pull the fusing out. The damn thing was made to be easily rendered inert for storage and _no one_ bothered to so much as open it up to see what needed to be done. The damn instructions were printed on the inside of the service hatch; granted it was in Chinese; but there were illustrations that made the meaning infinitely clear to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Now she was off to help some other poor bastards who got themselves captured by super mutants. She wondered how in two weeks she had managed to build a better life for herself out here with a pistol and the clothes on her back than most people here did in their entire existence.

She was approaching the Germantown Police Station where the super mutants had setup shop when she saw two mutants dragging something through the street while arguing. Taking another look she realized that they were dragging a body in power armor.

"Well, at least I can get some good salvage from the poor SOB when I'm done with the muties," she thought to herself. Then she saw the power armored figure start to move. He must have been unconscious, she assumed. Just another person she would have to save, then talk to and get some trinket of gratitude from. The theme had repeated itself enough even in the last two weeks to become almost boring, even with the constant threats of the wasteland. Then she saw something that changed her view on the whole situation.

The captive seemed to realize that he was capable of acting in his own self interest without waiting for a miraculous savior. He pulled a pistol from a holster on his thigh and put three rounds in the mutie on the right. The second one reacted by wasting time trying to intimidate his target rather than attacking and that gave Catherine the opportunity to enter the fight. She fired 3 rounds from her hunting rifle as fast as she could, managing to first disable, then kill the mutant. It looked like an impressive feat of marksmanship but honestly she was aiming for the mutant's torso for all three shots and the first and third would have been misses if the mutant had not so helpfully placed itself in the path of those bullets.

Catherine kept her rifle ready but not pointed at the power armored figure. She didn't want to seem like a threat to him after he had so easily dispatched one of his captors, but didn't want to seem like an easy target.

"I'm not going to have to shoot you too, am I?" she asked, really hoping the answer was no. She didn't have anywhere near the firepower or skill to take on an armored trooper. She really hoped that he would be friendly or at least neutral."

"No, I don't think so. Say, can you tell me where I am?" Ok, that was good. He's disoriented but seems friendly.

"You're about a block from the old Germantown Police Station where you would have been dinner."

"But where _is _that" Ok, maybe an out-of-towner. Makes sense, she hadn't met any locals with the level of competence he demonstrated in the short time she had observed him.

"You're a few miles Northwest of the D.C. ruins, on the Maryland side."

He seemed to process that information. "What planet am I on?" And this conversation was going so well. Why was it that everyone here had to be incompetent, insane, or both.

"You're on Earth."

That brought him up short. He instantly became more alert. The sidearm, while not pointed at her was very close to being so.

"Nobody calls Terra Earth anymore, where am I?"

"Look, I don't know what you're going on about with Terra, and planets; but honestly I don't care. You're stuck in the same irradiated shithole the rest of us are like it or not."

"What do you mean irradiated shithole?"

"Look don't blame me. It's been like this for 200 years, look." She pointed in the direction of the D.C. ruins.

"What year is it?"

"2277"

"And I suppose the names Kearny and Fuchida mea nothing to you?"

"Fuchida rings a bell, something about World War II."

"Wrong Fuchida. Fuck. So, if I told you that I come from a future in which we didn't nuke ourselves into the stone age to be ruled over by green gorilla men would you think I'm insane?"

"Honestly, I've seen crazier shit already; and I've only been out here for two weeks. Even If you are delusional you seem more stable than half the people I've run into."

"I don't know whether to be relieved or terrified that you accepted it that easily. I know I would have been much more skeptical. So what did I just kill here." He asked nudging one of the super mutant corpses with his pistol."

"They call them super mutants," He gave a derisive snort. "Hey don't blame me for the stupid names. I literally lived under a rock for my whole life until 14 days ago. They're dumb but strong and like to eat people. I'm heading to the station to save some idiots who let themselves get captured."

"Mind if I tag along. I have a feeling that when the shock works itself out in a couple of hours I'm going to have a lot of questions."

"Why not. I'm not going to say no to help from a man with power armor and skill. I'm Catherine Miller."

"Samuel Roberts. Let's get to work then."

* * *

Sam was only working on adrenaline. He knew that once he was out of danger the shock would wear off and he would have to really face the new reality he found himself in. At least the first person he ran into seemed to know what she was doing. Or, third if you counted Green and Ugly from before. As they approached the building he now knew was at one point a police station, he could tell that the tent town outside had been there for a very long time. The fabrics were mottled and dingy and the cots inside looked to be falling apart.

"Looks like you distracted their sentries with your capture, future-man. Should be easy to get in now."

"Glad to have been of service."

They entered the dilapidated building and heard movement in one of the rooms down the hall. Catherine looked in quickly and held up two fingers and pulled a grenade out of her bag. There were two mutants in the room now but there wouldn't be for long. She pulled the pin and threw it into the room. The mutants yelled, there was an explosion and then there was silence.

"Guess that took care of that"

"Guess so. Let's check for supplies. That's the first lesson I learned out here. You pick up _everything_ of value."

They entered the room cautiously, wary for traps. Catherine found an armed frag mine and Sam a trip wire attached to a shotgun trap. The entire building seemed to be laced with explosives meant to maim any potential rescuers. Catherine found an assault rifle that was in serviceable condition, remarkable for being in the hands of idiots with massive strength. They then entered a room that had been converted into a dinning room by the mutants.

"Oh fuck, that's sick." There were two bags of rotting human body parts sitting on the table.

"That's fucked up. It's one thing to hear about them eating people, it's another to _see_ it."

"I'm just glad this suit is environmentally sealed. It must smell horrible for you."

"Don't remind me. Let's find these Bigtowners and get out of here."

They found Red in the holding cells of the station and she told her rescuers that the mutants had taken Shorty downstairs to the kitchens. Sam and Catherine just looked at each other knowing that If upstairs was bad the kitchens would be worse. Neither was looking forward to going downstairs, but they couldn't just leave someone to this fate.

Entering the basement they were immediately greeted by decaying humans corpses hanging on meat hooks from the ceiling. Both fighters readied their weapons. Moving toward the kitchen they found another mutant. It screamed and charged at them, but Sam brought his laser rifle to bear and fired once. A super mutant skull may be very thick, but it was nothing compared to the armor that an Intek rifle was made to burn through on the battlefields of the Succession Wars. The beam punched right through the mutant's forehead and fried its brains instantly, killing the mutant.

"Remind me not to piss you off." Joked Catherine.

They found Shorty alive and well and after picking up everything not bolted to the ground moved to get Red and return to Bigtown.

"You're pretty good for only doing this for two weeks." Said Sam.

"You're good for only doing it for two hours." Returned Catherine.

"So where did you come from before this."

"Before the war, a company called Vault-Tec built fallout shelters that were meant to be self-sustaining communities to survive the apocalypse. I grew up in one of those until I was kicked out."

"What did they do that for?"

"My dad left in the middle of the night and the vault Overseer thought I had something to do with it. It ruined his vision of a perfect, ordered society so he tried to kill me, so I fought my way out before he could."

"And now what, you wander the countryside helping poor souls in need like me?"

"Well I'm looking for my Dad, but last I heard of him he was heading to Downtown D.C. and it's very dangerous in there. I need more supplies and running odd jobs gets me some money and chances to run some salvage."

"Sounds like you could use some help, and you're the only intelligent conversation I've found here so far. Mind if ¾ of a ton of battle armor tags along."

"By all means, come along. You're the first person I've met who can take care of themselves around here and you aren't even a local. Far from it actually."

They arrived back at Bigtown with just a little more hope for the future.

"Thank you for helping us. Can you stay to fight the super mutants that are coming or us now?"

And there went that hope.


End file.
